Sunjeong’s footsteps grew heavier with each step toward the apartment he shared with Jinhyeok.
Right now, Taeon asking him for his number, being so desperate—this was only temporary.
Once the situation returned to how it was before, Taeon would pull in some limitation of reality again and build his own defensive wall in his relationship with Sunjeong.
And Sunjeong had absolutely no intention of stamping his feet in front of the barrier Taeon erected, waiting for Taeon’s choice.
What Sunjeong wanted was only one thing.
To make Taeon leap over that barrier himself and come to him.
There was still a very long way to go, so it was too early to celebrate. Arriving in front of his home, Sunjeong pressed four numbers into the keypad at the front door with an indifferent expression. 0714. It was Taeon’s birthday.
“Go Sunjeong, you’re back?”
“Sunjeong!”
Yoonwoo, nestled in Jinhyeok’s arms, greeted him brightly along with Jinhyeok.
Seeing the two of them, Sunjeong scrunched up his face.
It took considerable patience to see a lovey-dovey couple pop up like cockroaches every single day.
Jinhyeok was one of Sunjeong’s few childhood friends. His family ranking in the business world was slightly higher than Sunjeong’s family, and unlike Sunjeong, who had nothing to do with succession issues, he was a major heir who would inherit the family business in the future. And Jinhyeok himself had tremendous ambition and aspirations for the path given to him.
If there was just one problem, it was love. The fact that Yoonwoo, who always smiled brightly at Sunjeong with such a sunny disposition, was a beta.
His family background isn’t much anyway, he’s a beta so no worries about pregnancy, and his looks are totally my type.
Because of that three-way combination, after spending one night with Yoonwoo with a light heart, Jinhyeok was completely whipped.
‘Hey, Go Sunjeong. Do you know what love is?’
‘How would I not know?’
When Sunjeong, who had been suffering from the fever of a terrible first love far longer than Jinhyeok, sneered back, Jinhyeok spoke with an ecstatic expression, acting as if he had no interest whatsoever in the reaction of the person in front of him.
‘Love is… when things like pheromones become meaningless….’
The way he spoke while gazing into empty space made him look exactly like the protagonist of a musical film that no one was watching.
Jinhyeok, deeply fallen for his first love, really did something reckless.
He had pheromone gland removal surgery without asking his parents’ permission. In case he might trigger a pheromone reaction with an omega. In case he might get entangled in a heat cycle because he was a Rutt.
For Jinhyeok, who needed to continue the bloodline through heredity and therefore create a new heir who looked similar to him, it was an incredibly huge risk. When Sunjeong conveyed his shocked feelings, Jinhyeok shrugged and said, “I’m going to achieve everything I want. Instead, after me, my older sister or brother’s side can do it.”
‘I’m going to have an arranged marriage, and Yoonwoo is really looking forward to it.’
‘Looking forward to it?’
‘He says every time he watches dramas where a chaebol alpha has an arranged marriage with a chaebol omega and a beta gets hurt, it’s fun.’
‘……’
‘When I tell him the marriage news, Yoonwoo says he’ll run away. He won’t tell me, but he’ll go somewhere I can find within a month, so I should search well. Then I’ll become a regretful alpha and cling to him crying. It’ll be fun, right? I’m looking forward to it too.’
‘……’
At first, Jinhyeok just seemed immature, but Sunjeong’s heart gradually darkened as he listened to Jinhyeok’s words.
Someone would even give up pheromones—a core element of dominant traits, an excellent condition for living in this society—for the sake of their love.
And Taeon…
Whenever pheromones tormented him, he sought out someone other than Sunjeong.
That day, for the first time, Sunjeong cried because of Taeon. Even though Taeon, far from spending a rutt with another omega, had instead sent a message saying “Go Sunjeong, what are you doing?” He cried without even replying to that message. He didn’t even know why he was crying, but he just kept crying.
He thought he wanted nothing from Taeon. He thought it would be good if Taeon could just stay by his side, even if he hid his feelings for Sunjeong, as long as he remained himself.
Only after crying for a long time until his nose turned red did Sunjeong realize why he was crying.
Just knowing Taeon’s feelings was clearly not enough.
He wanted Taeon to… like him back.
Without Sunjeong having to try hard to look into those feelings, in a way that he could clearly recognize them.
With the heart to give up things that were important to Taeon.
A few days after crying for a while, Sunjeong told his parents he was moving out. It was the result of a discussion with Jinhyeok. Knowing that his family would make a fuss if he lived alone with Yoonwoo, outwardly they acted as if only he and Sunjeong lived together, but in reality it was a three-person cohabitation arrangement that included Yoonwoo.
Since Sunjeong had also judged that when he devised his plan related to Taeon, it would be difficult to continue living with his parents at their house, the two of them were in good agreement.
Of course, since the help from Sunjeong’s side was greater, Jinhyeok also agreed to cooperate with Sunjeong’s affairs.
If it became necessary, he agreed to become Sunjeong’s dominant alpha boyfriend.
“Hey, Go Sunjeong. There’s leftover kimbap that our Yoonwoo made, want some? It’s seriously fucking delicious.”
Funny. Yoonwoo was absolutely terrible at cooking. He poured sugar when he should add salt, and even when making ramyeon, he couldn’t even control that easy water measurement, to the point where you couldn’t taste anything in the broth.
The kimbap in front of him also had its sides all burst open, and the only ingredients inside were rice and seaweed.
Would you normally call something like that kimbap? It was obvious he’d brushed it with cooking oil instead of sesame oil.
Making his invitation for Sunjeong to eat it meaningless, Sunjeong ended up laughing as he watched Jinhyeok put a piece of the burst kimbap into Yoonwoo’s mouth with unbearably loving eyes.
“I’m not hungry.”
It was a lie. He was hungry since all he’d had was coffee.
Right now, he was in a slightly difficult mood to watch the two of them playing at love.
“Sunjeong, there’s kimbap for you too, so eat it later if you want!”
Nodding at Yoonwoo’s gentle voice, Sunjeong entered his own room.
After entering the room and plopping down into the chair in front of the desk, Sunjeong’s eyes fell on the photo and letter posted on the wall.
It was graduation day, when Sunjeong had persuaded and persuaded Taeon, who said he wouldn’t come because he’d already started working, until they could finally be together. Even in the photo, Taeon’s smile wasn’t very bright.
[Go Sunjeong.
Be happy.
Don’t contact me when you’re busy. lol
Live well like yourself
Yoon Taeon]
In Taeon’s hands when he arrived late to the graduation ceremony was a small, cute knit flower bouquet.
He’d wondered if Taeon had bought it for himself since he had no family to attend with him.
His parents had already prepared a bouquet for Taeon anyway, so why bother, he thought, when Taeon held out that bouquet to him. He said it was a bouquet to give to Sunjeong.
He was moved to tears with joy when he received the bouquet, and when he came home and read alone in his room the small card Taeon had given him along with the bouquet, he cried from feeling sorry for himself. He hated that Taeon’s neat handwriting was telling him not to contact him anymore, to live like himself.
Now, when Sunjeong read this card posted on the wall, he no longer felt sorry for himself. The content of the card that Sunjeong focused on was nothing other than the single phrase, “Live well like yourself.”
Sunjeong knew better than anyone who he should live with and how in order to live like himself.
The next day, Sunjeong went to school later than usual.
The moment he entered the lecture hall, he felt his classmates’ gazes drawn to him and deliberately put on a brighter expression.
As expected, those loose-lipped bastards had spread everywhere what happened between the “really handsome Sentence part-timer” and Sunjeong yesterday evening. They must be busy with their own dating lives, yet they were so interested in other people’s business.
“Wow, Go Sunjeong.”
When he sat in his usual window seat, Suhyeon spoke in a teasing voice.
“There’s a reason you’re a kissless virgin, huh?”
“I’m not a kissless virgin.”
Sunjeong said very firmly.
Anyway, Taeon had given Sunjeong fellatio, and Sunjeong had come.
Well, at that level, he figured he’d shed the virgin label.
“With a face like that, it’s hard not to be a virgin.”
Ignoring Sunjeong’s words lightly, Suhyeon grinned. When Suhyeon laughed, a cool-scented pheromone wafted from the tip of his nose.
“Crazy bastard, this is a lecture hall.”
“Is there anyone here who doesn’t take suppressants? You’re fine with it too.”
Suhyeon was a dominant alpha.
He was also arrogant enough not to know that there were classes in this world who had difficulty taking suppressants that weren’t even covered by insurance.
At the very least, it was impossible to freely emit pheromones outside since it could lead to sex crimes, but when they were among themselves like this, there were often guys who subtly showed off their pheromones as if flaunting them.
“But that part-timer was clearly not dominant just by looking. I saw him once too.”
“How can you tell traits just by looking at someone’s face?”
Suhyeon thrust his face at Sunjeong.
Regardless of Sunjeong pulling his body back in surprise, Suhyeon sniffed like a dog.
“There’s no smell. Still, if he’s at least a dominant alpha and could talk to you to that extent, it should have rubbed off. Don’t tell me he’s a beta? You’re not going to date a beta, are you?”
Sunjeong’s expression went blank as he watched Suhyeon utter the word “beta” as if it were utterly dreadful.
